A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless devices and, more particularly, to wearable devices capable of responding intelligently to surroundings.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet is a rapidly growing communication network of interconnected computers and computer networks around the world. Together, these millions of connected computers form a vast repository of multimedia information that is readily accessible by any of the connected computers from anywhere at any time. Further, these millions of connected computers provide a reliable means for users to stay in touch from anywhere at any time by way of emails, voices, images or videos. To provide mobility and portability of access to the Internet, mobile communication or computing devices (also known as wireless communication devices) are introduced and capable of communicating, via wireless networks, with the Internet.
The wireless communication devices or mobile computing devices are normally smaller scale computing devices. Examples of such devices include two-way pagers, cellular phones, palm-sized computing devices and personal digital assistant (PDA) apparatuses. These devices enable users to receive, collect, analyze, review and disseminate information as they travel or move about. Although the ability of wireless communication devices or mobile computing devices to receive, collect, analyze, review and disseminate information is very beneficial, these types of devices are nevertheless limited in the ways they assist users.
There is therefore a need for wireless communication devices that are better able to assist their users.
The invention relates to techniques that enable wireless communication devices, namely, wearable devices, to assist users in new ways by interacting with other devices or surroundings to notify users of things that would be of interest to users. In one aspect of the invention, wearable devices display information for users in response to surrounding signals. The surrounding signals can come from a nearby wireless transceiver that may be included in another wearable device, a terminal device or an isolated device provided in a setting or area. In another aspect of the invention, wireless communication or computing devices (e.g., wearable devices) can interact and perform social filtering. The users of the devices can then be suitably notified with respect to the results of the social filtering.
The invention can be implemented in numerous ways including, as a method, an apparatus, a computer readable medium, and a computer system. Several embodiments of the invention are discussed below.
As a method for displaying information on a wireless device having a display, one embodiment of the invention includes at least the acts of: detecting presence of another wireless device; receiving, from the another wireless device, a request to display identifiable information on the display of the wireless device after the detecting has detected the presence of the another wireless device; and displaying the identifiable information on the display of the wireless device in response to the request.
As a method for exchanging data between wearable computing devices, one embodiment of the invention includes at least the acts of: determining whether a first wearable computing device having a display can presently communicate with a second wearable computing device; sending a data exchange request from the first wearable computing device to the second wearable computing device when the determining determines that the first wearable computing device can presently communicate with the second wearable computing device, the data exchange request requesting a data exchange between the first wearable computing device and the second wearable computing device; receiving a request response at the first wearable computing device, the request response indicating whether the second wearable computing device has authorized the data exchange; performing the data exchange between the first wearable computing device and the second wearable computing device when the request response indicates that the second wearable computing device has authorized the data exchange; examining at least one of the data received at the first wearable computing device and the request response to determined whether the second wearable computing device desires to have certain information displayed on the display of the first wearable computing device; and displaying the certain information on the display of the first wearable computing device when the examining indicates that the second wearable computing device desires to have certain information displayed on the display of the first wearable computing device.
As a method for exchanging data between wearable computing devices, one embodiment of the invention includes the acts of: determining whether a first wearable computing device can presently communicate with a second wearable computing device; sending a data exchange request from the first wearable computing device to the second wearable computing device when the determining determines that the first wearable computing device can presently communicate with the second wearable computing device, the data exchange request requesting a data exchange between the first wearable computing device and the second wearable computing device; receiving a request response at the first wearable computing device, the request response indicating whether the second wearable computing device has authorized the data exchange; performing the data exchange between the first wearable computing device and the second wearable computing device when the request response indicates that the second wearable computing device has authorized the data exchange; and thereafter performing social filtering on the data received by at least one of the first wearable computing device and the second wearable computing device based on predetermined criteria.
The advantages of the invention are numerous. Different embodiments or implementations may yield one or more of the following advantages. One advantage of the invention is that wireless communication devices (e.g., wearable devices) can easily acquire from or transmit data to other wearable devices or terminal devices. Another advantage of the invention is that wireless communication devices (e.g., wearable devices) can interact with other devices or surroundings to notify users of things that would be of interest to their users.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention.